Abstract: Numerous airports have been constructed based on the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Civil Aviation Development of China. We collected relevant data on the number and distribution of civil airports, the construction of which had started or that had been assessed and approved. Based on a comparative analysis of the limits of ecological restoration in different ecologically vulnerable areas from the perspective of space, as well as an examination of ecological sensitivity factors in the ecosystems surrounding airport construction projects, suggestions concerning key ecological control techniques to be employed in airport construction projects in different ecologically vulnerable areas are put forward. The results showed that the airport construction projects recently approved by the Ministry of Water Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency are mainly distributed in the ecologically vulnerable areas of the Red Soil Hilly Area in southern China, the Karst Rocky Desertification Area in southwest China, the Agro-pastoral Ecotone in the southwestern mountain region, and the Desert-Oasis Connecting Belt in northwest China. The airport construction projects in the southwest mountain area, the hilly areas of southern China, and in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau are mainly based on the ecological technologies of slope protection, interception and drainage management, and vegetation restoration, respectively. In the arid and semi-arid areas, the ecological control technology employed in airport construction is mainly the rational utilization of water resources and reduction or mitigation of the effects of sandstorms. This study aims to serve as basis for soil and water conservation plans in airport construction projects and accelerate ecosystem restoration within the vicinity of airport construction sites.

Key words: airport construction project, ecological control techniques, ecological vulnerable regions